Utah's drought conditions made a rare, dramatic leap last week — and state water officials are urging communities to act now. Here's what the numbers mean for residents along the Wasatch Front.

Russia stockpiled 710,000 cubic meters of snow to fake a Winter Olympics. China spent $60 million on snow machines to cover bone-dry mountains for 2022. Utah doesn't have that problem — yet. But with the Great Salt Lake shrinking and 2034 approaching, the state is betting on a high-tech weather modification program, smarter water use, and sheer determination to make sure the world's greatest snow on Earth stays that way.

There’s something that happens in April on the Wasatch Front that doesn’t make the news but plays out in neighborhoods all across the Salt Lake Valley. Drip lines get checked. Plot stakes go back in the ground. Gardeners show up with seed packets and notebooks, planning what goes where. The soil, cold and compact just weeks before, starts to give.